Archive for ‘administrative’

I haven’t posted much recently. But I’m about to try becoming more active.

I originally started this blog to discuss some of my ideas, many of them being related to human cognition. I have found, mostly before I started this blog, that it is difficult to communicate my ideas to others. It seems that I am looking at the various questions in ways that are very different from how most philosophers look at them. And by “philosophers”, I really mean humans. We all philosophize to some extent.

That I am looking at things very differently is the basis for the name I have given the blog.

I’ll be attempting to get back to a rate of around one post per week. But I won’t be pushing myself to meet that rate.

And a note on comments. I currently have configured the blog so that commenting on a post is closed after 30 days. That’s mainly to reduce the amount of spamming.

I received notification from WordPress, earlier today, that it is now 6 years since I started this blog.

My posting rate has slowed down recently. But it has not completely stopped. The slowdown is partly because I’m frustrated with the weirdness of philosophy. (Hmm, maybe that would make a good title for a future post).

I have not posted much on politics. That’s mostly because few people are likely to be interested in my opinions. But this has been a strange political season, so I’ll probably be posting some comments before the November elections. I will at least wait until after the conventions.

Recently, my posts have been infrequent. That’s partly, because of frustration.

Scientists often criticize philosophy. And, when they do, philosophers retort that scientists do a lot of philosophy themselves. That’s true. But it misses the point that the kind of philosophy that scientists do is often very different from what analytic philosophers do.

I’ve decided to try a new track. Instead of pointing to disagreements with analytic philosophers, I shall attempt to outline my own ideas of how philosophy should be done. In particular, it will be a guide to how I look at the questions related to human cognition. And then, I will contrast that with what analytic philosophers appear to be doing. I’ve created a new category “My Philosophy” to use for these posts.

To me, the kind of philosophy that I see coming from academic philosophers resembles religion. I sometimes think of it as the religion of the academy. What makes it look like religion is a strong emphasis on preserving ancient traditions.

Philosophers tend to be bright people. The posts on my philosophy will be suggesting where I might hope that they will redirect their analytical skills.

It’s been a little over a month since my last post. I took a few days of travel, but never got back to posting on my return.

Mostly, I have been engaged in similar philosophical discussions at The Skeptical Zone, where I continue to see people look at things with a “God’s eye view” philosophy that cannot work (in my opinion).

Now reading

I am currently reading Dembski’s new book “Being as Communion” and will probably post on that when I have finished. I won’t say that the book is disappointing, because I started with low expectations.

In the meantime, I’ll try to get back to posting around once per week.

Posted in administrative |
Comments Off on I’ve been neglecting this blog

I have not posted much lately, so perhaps the background that I shall try to present here will partially explain that.

During my own study of human learning, I have come to understand how the mind works. I could be mistaken about that, of course, though my understanding continues to hold up rather well. Readers of this blog will doubtless be skeptical, since I have never published an explanation of how the mind works.

I have made attempts to present an explanation. But my attempts are not successful. People react as if what I write is obviously wrong, yet they are never able to tell me what is wrong. What becomes very clear, is that the way I am looking at the question is very different from the way that they are looking at the question. And that observation is where I came up with the idea for the title of this blog.

There’s a message here, about thinking outside the box. If you think too far outside the editor’s box, you won’t get published.

I started the blog, to have a place where I could present some of my ideas. And I have been doing that, though with care to try and stay not too far from the terminology that is commonly used by others discussing the mind. But it does become frustrating, after a while, to be unable to communicate what I see as important ideas.

My best guess is that I shall never succeed in presenting my understanding of the mind. I am not allowing that to bother me, though I do occasionally need to take a break from thinking about the related issues. Hence my recent lack of posting.